Biography – Fawzi Haimor

“Haimor showed a gracious, idiomatic touch with fine transparency and dynamics surely marked. The slow introduction to the opening movement had ample breadth and weight, dovetailing neatly into a vital, amiable Allegro. In the vivacious finale Haimor and the players delivered Haydn’s music with a winning blend of musical wit and infectious energy.”

Chicago Classical Review

Fawzi Haimor was Music Director of the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen from 2017-2020. He was elected and appointed to the position immediately following his impressive debut with the orchestra in December 2016. Following a critically acclaimed first season together, in 2018/2019 Haimor conducted the WPR in their home at the Stadthalle Reutlingen, in such German centres as Baden-Baden, Ludwigsburg, Heidelberg and Munich, and on tour in Italy.

Fawzi Haimor has worked with Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, WDR Funkhausorchester Köln, Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Orquesta Sinfónica do Porto da Música, Oulu Sinfonia and Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. In the US, Haimor has conducted orchestras such as The Florida Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony and New Mexico Philharmonic. He also made an acclaimed debut with the Grant Park Symphony in July 2017. Further afield, he has collaborated with Qatar Philharmonic, Kyoto Symphony and touring with New Zealand Symphony, and in May 2018 he made his debut at London’s Barbican Hall, conducting the Chineke! Orchestra, who reinvited him to their European tour.

Haimor’s broad repertoire includes a focus on works of the late German Romantic period and by 19th and 20th century Russian and American composers, plus he is a committed advocate of contemporary music and has performed premieres by composers such as Mason Bates and Kareem Roustom. In his last season with the WPR, he explored works by Mahler, Zimmermann, Tchaikovsky, Gubaidulina, Ives, Brahms and is working with soloists like Dejan Lazic, Isabelle van Keulen and Noah Bendix-Bagley.

Upcoming debut appearances in this season include The Utah Symphony, and the University Symphony Orchestra at Indiana University as well as a return engagement with The Florida Orchestra.

Haimor was born in Chicago in 1983 and educated in the Middle East and in San Francisco. He completed his violin training at the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana University, and studied conducting under David Effron and Arthur Fagen. He earned bachelor’s degrees in both music and neurobiology, a master’s degree in conducting from the University of California-Davis, and second master’s in instrumental conducting at Indiana University. Until 2015, he was Assistant Conductor and Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he led a variety of concerts including classical, pops and outreach. Whilst in Pittsburgh, he also served as a cover to esteemed conductors including Manfred Honeck, Leonard Slatkin, Gianandrea Noseda, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and Yan Pascal Tortelier.